Privacy in surveillance
Whether you have to adhere to government laws or regulations such as GDPR, or rules put forward by trade unions, there’s an Axis solution that’s right for you. They allow surveillance and remote monitoring while addressing restrictions on collecting identifiable personal data. Options include solutions for privacy in fixed areas, for indoor activity monitoring and for bystanders in investigations, as well as solutions for absolute privacy under various circumstances.
Privacy in fixed areas
Static privacy masking is ideal for indoor or outdoor scenes with fixed areas you aren’t allowed to monitor. It hides a selected area by applying a permanent opaque or mosaic mask on all live and recorded video. Mosaic masking shows the selected area in very low resolution, so you can see activity in the masked area without personally identifiable details.
For PTZ cameras, blocking views of unintended areas is especially important given their long distance and wide area coverage. In a PTZ camera, static privacy masking is fixed to the camera’s coordinate system, so the masking is maintained in the same area of the scene even as the camera’s field of view changes. Static privacy masking is a standard feature with Axis network video products.
Privacy for indoor activity monitoring
Dynamic masking through AXIS Live Privacy Shield is a cost-effective solution for addressing video monitoring and privacy in indoor settings with good lighting. It masks in real time anything that moves, as compared with a set background scene. It’s ideal when you’re primarily interested in monitoring activities rather than in identifying individuals.
For instance, in retail or healthcare, you may be more interested in knowing if a cleaner has visited an area, rather than who the individual is. In a production facility, you can ensure that processes are moving smoothly while protecting people’s identities. At an activity center, you can let customers remotely see how busy the place is – so they can decide when it’s best to come – without exposing people’s identities in live video. AXIS Live Privacy Shield also supports separate unmasked streams that enable, for instance, only authorized viewers to access unmasked video if an incident occurs.
Privacy for bystanders in investigations
Before sharing video recordings, you may need to comply with regulations that protect the privacy of bystanders. A video redaction tool in AXIS Camera Station lets you easily mask individuals or areas in a scene that are not of interest to an investigation. You can, for example, mask only selected moving objects or mask all still and moving objects except persons of interest.
Absolute privacy indoors or outdoors
Thermal cameras let you monitor activity while ensuring complete anonymity for individuals. They’re ideal indoors or outdoors in environments with or without light. The technology uses heat generated by animate and inanimate objects to produce images. Only shapes – moving or not – are captured, ensuring that no personally identifiable details are ever generated.
Use thermal cameras for privacy-sensitive applications ranging from surveillance in schools to monitoring patients in healthcare facilities. In healthcare, for instance, a thermal camera in combination with video motion detection analytics can alert staff if a patient falls out of bed. Thermal cameras are excellent for ensuring that you can detect – and act on – incidents in challenging environments without compromising people’s privacy.
Absolute privacy in wide outdoor areas
An Axis security radar gives you surveillance with wide-area coverage and complete privacy in any weather, day or night. Radar technology with analytics detects movement and triggers alarms without collecting personally identifiable data. It’s ideal for detecting intruders, automatically alerting security and activating a loudspeaker in places like community swimming pools.
A security radar minimizes false alarms because it’s not sensitive to shadows, headlights, or small animals. It provides an intruder’s exact position, speed, and angle of movement. And you can use it alone or with a video surveillance system, where the security radar can coordinate with pan-tilt-zoom cameras for visual confirmation of alerts.
Data protection
While data protection is not dealt with here, how video surveillance data is handled is also an important aspect of ensuring privacy protection. See Cybersecurity to learn more about it.
Relevant industries
Industrial
An industrial plant is an intricate web of assets, people and procedures. Axis solutions enable situational awareness and provide cost-effective ways to improve processes and productivity as well as protect valuable parts of the plant.
Retail
You might associate surveillance networks with security and loss prevention, and it’s true that Axis makes your stores safer. But did you know you can also use our hardware and analytics to increase your revenue and reduce your costs?
Healthcare
Healthcare facilities the world over have long trusted Axis to protect people and property. But now more than ever, our technology also helps you treat more patients with fewer resources – safely and efficiently.
More industries
Axis provides a complete range of network video, audio and access control solutions for a broad spectrum of industries and customer needs. Our flexible and secure technology is easy to integrate and scales to match your growth.
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